The ADFAS (Australian Decorative & Fine Arts Society), Yarra Branch award.


HARMONIOUS COSMOS explores lyrical narratives by combining Daoist philosophy with magic realist paintings. Drawing upon Daoist philosophy, my fundamental concept is embracing the flow of life and nature. I depict a boundless pictorial space to translate these natural rhythms of life. In my painting, the sky and the ground have unlimited extents where the past and present freely roam. By combining natural, imaginative, and Buddhist motifs, I poetically interpret my aesthetic experience and my feeling of a moment being an eternity. My main methodology is letting everything wander to explore a dynamic visual balance. 

I enjoy my everyday life as a series of aesthetically pleasing scenes and let myself just be in the moment. The lyrical narrative I create in my paintings is a document of these aesthetic moments that blend connection and detachment to anything, such as a moment, a scene, or myself. Everything in the universe is enduringly changing; for me, this universe not only exists in my outer world but also has roots in my inner world. I depict the ephemeral nature of those changes to experience the eternal world for an instant. The phenomena of nature share the transient characteristics that move and permeate through my painting, which is my interpretation of this impermanence.

I have loved painting since childhood. Painting is like a fate that leads me to find myself, appreciate nature, and explore a bigger world. Painting is my meditation and journey, where I express my affective whole to convey the harmonious relationship between the inner mind and the outer world. Through painting, I feel love. 

 

Sang Shen, ‘One Day’, 2023 [detail], oil on canvas, 80cm x 100cm
Sang Shen, ‘One Day’, 2023, oil on canvas, 80cm x 100cm
Sang Shen, ‘One Day’, 2023, oil on canvas, 80cm x 100cm
Sang Shen, ‘Fate’, 2023, oil on canvas, 80cm x 60cm x 4 and 40cm x 30cm x 3
Sang Shen, ‘Fate’, 2023, oil on canvas, 80cm x 60cm
Sang Shen, ‘Fate’, 2023, oil on canvas, 80cm x 60cm

Sang Shen, ‘Fate’, 2023, oil on canvas, 40cm x 30cm
Sang Shen, ‘Fate’, 2023, oil on canvas, 40cm x 30cm
Sang Shen, ‘Fate’, 2023, oil on canvas, 40cm x 30cm
Sang Shen, ‘Fate’, 2023, oil on canvas, 80cm x 60cm
Sang Shen, ‘Letting Be’, 2023, oil on canvas, 80cm x 60cm
Sang Shen, ‘Memory’, 2023, oil on canvas, 80cm x 60cm
Sang Shen, ‘Memory’, 2023, oil on canvas, 80cm x 60cm
Sang Shen, ‘Lyrical Seasons’, 2023, oil on canvas, 120cm x 60cm x 4
Sang Shen, ‘Autumn’, 2023, oil on canvas, 120cm x 60cm
Sang Shen, ‘Winter’, 2023, oil on canvas, 120cm x 60cm
Sang Shen, ‘Spring’, 2023, oil on canvas, 120cm x 60cm
Sang Shen, ‘Summer’, 2023, oil on canvas, 120cm x 60cm
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Sang Shen